This story takes place after the events of my previous fanfiction, "Two Weeks or Tokyo!" I do not own A Silent Voice or any of its characters. Many times in the story, there will be different types of quotes, so they will be explained briefly.

In the context of dialogue, regular quotation marks are used. In the context of being between dialogue or on its own, a thought will be denoted by quotation marks as well as italics. The same applies for sign language, so be sure to notice the words that follow, such as "Shoya thought," or "Shoko signed," to avoid confusion. In the case of some characters, they will speak while signing, so there will be either quotation marks and italics or just quotation marks. There will also be texts and emails; these will be denoted by italics without quotation marks.

"How'z thisz?" Naoka Ueno heard as a soft, gentle pair of hands lifted off of the top of her hair. The same pair of hands held a mirror behind the back of her head, showing it off. Naoka's hair, which was usually long and straight, was now styled to reach her shoulders in length while being up in a bun. This was the same pair of hands that made gestures all over the place, that Naoka eventually began to be able to understand. This was the same pair of hands that changed the way everyone saw each other in Naoka's sixth grade class. "This is the same pair of hands that snatched up my beloved-" Naoka began to think, but she stopped herself short.

"It looks good…" she said softly. There was no response initially. Naoka realized she was not annunciating her words as well as she should be. Her hairdresser was staring at her intently. "It looks good, Shoko."

At this, Shoko Nishimiya had successfully worked on her first customer as an official hairdresser.

It had not been very long since the Coming of Age Ceremony. At the moment, it was March. Things could be argued to be winding up or winding down for the Nishimiya family. To begin with, Yaeko Nishimiya, the mother of Shoko and Yuzuru, would soon be experiencing an empty nest. While Shoko had been moved out for two years, Yuzuru had just graduated high school and was not too long from moving out herself. If Yaeko was asked, things were definitely winding down.

However, if Shoko or Yuzuru were asked, things were definitely winding up. Yuzuru was fresh out of high school and would be going to a university soon, where she would learn how to be a professional photographer. Shoko was now completely done being an apprentice and learning how to be a hairdresser, and was now an official one.

"Ehh? Why can't Auntie do it?..." Yuzuru Nishimiya complained. She sat in the chair with a cape on, in a place that she visited very frequently, not usually for haircuts, ironically enough. Instead of seeing the familiar face of the lady whom she called Auntie in the mirror, she saw the torso of a man who was much taller. "If you mess my hair up, I'm gonna flip…"

"Oh, shut it…" the man replied, in a tone that an employee of any establishment would be fired for using. However, there was enough familiarity between the two for them that they could both laugh it off immediately after, which they did.

At this, Shoya Ishida began working on his first customer as an official hairdresser.

Just like Shoko Nishimiya, Shoya Ishida had proven his skills as an official hairdresser. He entered university at the same time as Shoko, and was pursuing the same career as her, so it was only normal that he graduated from it at the same time as her as well.

"You look so good, Naoka!" Miyoko Sahara, their mutual friend said. "Shoko, you're so talented!" At the same time as she was saying this, she was using sign language. Naoka gave her thanks very hesitantly, but Shoko was more than happy to thank Miyoko for her praise. "Ugh…" Naoka thought while she clenched her fists. In the past, Naoka hated Shoko, despite all of her efforts to like her. Now that two years have passed, and they have spent so much time together, she liked Shoko, despite all of her efforts to continue hating her. As a result, she found herself very irritable when around Shoko, with nothing to fairly attribute her irritation to.

Naoka could, however, sometimes bite the bullet and be nice to the friend who she refused to acknowledge as such. She took a deep breath. "Shoko. Thank you for asking me to be your first customer." she said as she took her leave.

Miyoko giggled a small bit. Shoko rested her hands on her hips in a way that showed how satisfied she was with her own work. "Miyoko, how'ah thinnz goin with yoah brand?" she asked as she cleaned Naoka's hair off from the floor.

It took some time for Miyoko to get used to the way that Shoko spoke, since she was used to speaking to Shoko exclusively with sign language, but around a year ago, Shoko began to use her voice more and more, even if people around her were using signs. Eventually, she spoke so much in place of signs that she only used signs for when she was far away from whomever she was trying to speak to. Miyoko, with how well she was able to read people and their relationships- felt like she knew exactly why. As she often did, she kept quiet and observed.

"Miyoko, hurry it up." Naoka urged her as Miyoko chatted a little with Shoko.

"Ahh, sorry. I've gotta go!" Miyoko said while signing. "Hey, let's hang out sometime soon!" She had not been able to tell Shoko nor ask Shoko everything she had wanted to, but it was not as if either of them were burdened with school any longer, so there was always the future. Besides, both of them would be spending most of their time in Tokyo. As Miyoko left, Naoka admired her hair with her phone's camera, picturing what sort of outfits would go well with it. "See? I told you you'd love it." Miyoko teased as they walked.

Though it was by a hairdresser that neither of the two were used to letting work on them, Naoka Ueno and Yuzuru Nishimiya both left their respective salon feeling even better than just satisfied with how they looked. Just as much as they felt this, they felt embarrassed to have to admit anything of the sort.

As if they weren't after the Coming of Age Ceremony, Shoya Ishida and Shoko Nishimiya were indisputably adults now. They had both moved from college students and apprentices to official members of the working class. Now was more of an appropriate time than ever before for Shoya to discuss something that had been nagging at his conscience with his family and Yuzuru, the people who still lived in his hometown whom he talked to more than anyone else.

Right after her haircut, Yuzuru went home to change and take a bath, but right after that, she made the trek back to the Ishida residence for dinner, since her mother was working. Shoya, as Yuzuru saw from the dining room, had become especially popular with the customers, not that he was aware of this. Clearly, having a young, tall man around as a hairdresser attracted a lot mature ladies. Because of this, by the time he was done with work, Yuzuru was reading comics and preparing to leave.

Shoya crashed, sitting hard on the dining room chair and letting out a deep exhale. He began to dig into his food and pondered whether tonight would be a good night to bring this up. "Yuzuru looks like she's about to go home…" he thought while glancing at the people he wanted to talk to. For a moment, he thought that he should just wait instead. He looked and saw Maria happily eating with Pedro and Shoya's sister (these are Maria's parents). "No… I should bring this up." he thought as he clenched his fists. Everything was opportune right now. Everyone he wanted to talk to was right in front of him. He no longer had an excuse of feeling guilty for leaving his mother to work at the shop alone, since she would always be safe with Pedro around, and wouldn't feel lonely with his sister around.

Shoya cleared his throat. Suddenly, the eyes of everyone went straight onto him. "Ah…" he said, faltering a bit. Now that he had everyone's attention, he was nervous to continue on. Not only was it a matter of being the center of attention, but it was a matter of worrying about hurting them.

"Sho-chan! What's up?" Maria asked cheerfully. "So cute…" Shoya thought. This little act of recognition gave Shoya a confidence boost. "What am I nervous for, anyways? This is my family…"

Two months ago…

Late in the day, after the Coming of Age Ceremony, Shoya, Shoko, Miyoko, Naoka, Miki, Satoshi, and Tomohiro all met for drinks. More specifically, they all met to socialize; only a few of them drank, and even less got drunk. While they chatted, they discussed their plans for the future. Of course, there were the ones whose plans were prone to falling through. There was Tomohiro, who was planning to make it big as a director; Satoshi, who would follow him until he decided a career for himself; and Miki, who would follow Satoshi regardless. There were also the two who had a solid, successful career in mind and would more than likely be the most successful from the group. Both Miyoko and Naoka were fashion designers who exhibited incredible talent when working together.

There were also two who lie somewhere in between being certain of what their futures held and not being certain. Shoya and Shoko were put on the spot. Because of this, they realized that they needed to make definite plans before long. After the group split apart and went their separate ways, Shoya walked Shoko home. On the way to the Nishimiya residence, although walking and talking was difficult and inopportune for people who used sign language, they decided to address the thoughts that weighed on their minds. As it happened frequently, they tried to speak at the same time, Shoya with signs and Shoko with her voice. After a pause, Shoya signed for Shoko to go first.

"Shoya, aboudd what Zatoshi-kun broudd up…" she began but trailed off. She cursed herself for being so shy. She looked over to Shoya, who was signing something. It was rather dark right now, so she was not exactly sure of what he was saying.

"Oh, right." Shoya thought aloud. He had become completely used to using signs and talking with Shoko, but the one thing he was not completely used to was being unable to communicate in the dark. He took Shoko's hand, making them both blush, and brought the both of them to a street light, so they could properly talk.

"I wanted to talk to you about that too, Shoko." Shoya said while signing. "I… want to live with you." They were not exactly in the most romantic spot to have this conversation, but they had it here nonetheless. Here, they decided how they would proceed with their future. They decided that, despite needing to hash out the details over time, they would move in together in Tokyo, and work at separate salons until they were able to open their own or inherit their own (if Shoko's instructor wanted to pass it down onto her). Now, the future that was so hazy had fog lifted from it, and they had confidence in their future.

The present…

Shoya cleared his throat again. "So, there's something I wanted to bring up with all of you." he began. He was worried that Yuzuru was going to interrupt and correctly guess what he was about to say, so he didn't pause and instead continued speaking without faltering. "In a few weeks, I'm gonna be moving to Tokyo, to live with Shoko."

There was a lull after Shoya said this. The silence was broken by Shoya's mom. "I knew you'd end up going to Tokyo with her!" she said cheerfully. Shoya was taken aback, so his mother quickly tried to save face. "I mean, you knew it too, right?" She looked at Yuzuru. Yuzuru looked away, snickering a little. "What? How the…" Shoya thought, but he had learned to underestimate neither his mother nor Yuzuru when it came to the power of observation, so he decided not to voice these thoughts.

Shoya cleared his throat again. "M-moving along…" he continued. "Mom… I haven't forgotten about what I owe you." Shoya referenced the fact that still he owed his mother 1,700,000¥ due to poor decisions he had made earlier in his life. He had saved up a decent amount, but it was dwarfed by what he still owed. "I'll definitely pay you back, Mom. After I've worked for a few years, I'll bring you all of the money."

Ms. Ishida had a soft expression on her face. "Shoya… do you remember how you phrased it?" his mother asked. "You said that you would earn it all back for the sake of living on."

Shoya scratched his head. He was struggling to see what the relevance of bringing his phrasing up was. While Shoya was trying to put this together, Yuzuru tilted her head. "'The sake of living on?'" she quoted. "What, were you not planning on doing that already?" Somehow, in all their time of knowing each other, Yuzuru never knew that Shoya's shame grew to the point that he, at one point, had attempted suicide.

However, nobody seemed too keen on delving into that detail, especially Shoya, so his mom decided to answer for him. "Ah, Yuzuru-chan, I can explain it later, if you want." she said to Yuzuru before turning back to Shoya. "Back to what I brought up, you said it this way, correct?" Shoya remembered thinking it at the time, so it didn't surprise him that he said it aloud any of the times he offered to make a payment. "So, I think you should. You're going to Tokyo, and it wouldn't shock me if you're going to be getting married and having kids soon. So, consider yourself debt free." she said cheerfully as she rested her chin between her hands, her elbows resting on the table.

Shoya couldn't help but blush at his mother's reasoning, and Yuzuru snickered to herself at his reaction. His sister decided to pipe up, upon seeing this. "Shoya, I hope you're prepared to have kids. They're a big responsibility!" Pedro nodded as he patted Maria on the head.

"I never said I was gonna have any!" he said defensively. "And I definitely don't wanna hear that from you…" he thought, as he and his mother had taken care of Maria just as much as her own mother had.

Yuzuru stifled her snickering as well as she could, but it slipped by. "Man, you're hilarious…" she said as she wiped her eyes. "If that's all, then I'll be going now. Thanks for dinner, Auntie!" she said to Ms. Ishida. Shoya was a little apprehensive about Yuzuru's response. Yuzuru would go through great efforts to hide how she actually feels, and the fact that she was leaving right after hearing what he said didn't exactly make Shoya feel any more confident about how she was holding up.

Shoya got up to walk her home. Ren, the boy Yuzuru was with, had also moved out, so the responsibility of walking Yuzuru home had fallen back on Shoya's shoulders. "Wait up! I'll walk you home!" he called out to her as he put on his sneakers. Yuzuru didn't wait up, but Shoya had long legs, so he was able to catch up to her quickly. As they were walking, Shoya wasn't sure how to ask what he wanted to ask. He decided to bite the bullet, though. "Hey… you're not gonna be sad without me around, are you?" he asked nervously.

"Ha! Creep." Yuzuru said dryly. Shoya somewhat expected a response like this, so he just rolled his eyes. After a moment of walking in silence, Yuzuru sighed. "Hey, Shoya… remember, last year, how I was all depressed, and stuff?" she asked hesitantly.

Shoya furrowed his brow, trying to remember. "Oh yeah… now that I think about it, she did seem really lonely…" he thought. "Yeah, I remember… you asked me to stay close to home…" Shoya felt a lump of guild form in his throat.

Yuzuru had a thinly veiled smug expression on her face. Shoya frowned, as such an expression usually spelled trouble for him or Ren. "Well, forget all about that. Pretty soon, I'm gonna be going to a university in Tokyo, one for photography. So that means I'm the one who won't be sticking close to home. And I won't be missing you or Shoko!"

Shoya's eyes widened. "Woah…" he said softly. "I wonder… am I the first to hear about this, or am I just that far out of the loop with everyone else…" he thought. "Th-that's really impressive, dude. And that's a relief… I was worried you'd be all sad without me or Shoko closeby, but now it's like you'll still be close to family!"

Yuzuru stuck her tongue out. "Yuck! What a lame thing to say! And I hope you don't think of Shoko as family!" she said with a laugh. "But, speaking of family… I hope I'm an aunt one day, 'cause of you and my sister." Shoya was baffled for a moment, so he looked over to her. While she was teasing Shoya a little, she was being genuine, so instead of complaining or scolding her, he gave a quiet, embarrassed nod.

Not too long after this, Shoya dropped Yuzuru off at the entrance to the apartment complex.

As soon as Yuzuru got into her room, she pulled out her phone and called Ren. "Hey! What's it like being free from school?" he asked cheerfully. The two began to have a very pleasant conversation, and Yuzuru was finding herself enjoying it thoroughly. She told Ren about how Shoya was leaving, which was apparently news to Ren. "I'm so sorry, Yuzuru, I feel like everyone around you's been leaving your side..." he said sadly. The fact that Ren hadn't heard about this before now startled Yuzuru into the realization that she hadn't told him about her acceptance into the university in Tokyo yet.

There was, however, a time and a place for everything. Ren would be visiting soon, anyways, for spring break, so she could tell him face to face later. In the mean time, she would have to come to terms with the fact that, for the first time, she would be the one leaving others behind.

Days went by, and soon weeks did too. Before Shoya knew it, he was on his way to Tokyo. Shoko had rented an apartment that was far from neither the salon she worked at nor the one Shoya wanted to work at. Shoya only brought a few things, because he didn't have to bring much to begin with. All he brought was: money, clothes, toiletries, his phone, and his charger. Everything else was left for his family to use or sell.

Shoya and Shoko would be sleeping on a futon together, at least until they were able to comfortably afford a bed. This was a point of great excitement and apprehension for the both of them. It would not be the first time they slept next to one another, but it somehow felt like a bigger jump to make than before, now that they were living in their own place.

The night that Shoya arrived in Tokyo, the two had finally finished moving everything from Shoko's old dorm to the apartment. It would be an easy move, but there were just few enough items that calling movers would be somewhat a waste, so Shoya ended up carrying the rest of Shoko's things for just over a kilometer, back to the apartment.

Now that they were finally settled in, Shoya was beat. He was rubbing his shoulders and neck, wincing from soreness. Shoko had just stepped out of the bathroom, in her pajamas. Shoya blushed a little; seeing her wet hair and the implications that followed embarrassed him. Though his heart skipped a beat from seeing Shoko like this, he did his best to hide his reaction. "The bath is all youahs." Shoko said with a bright smile. "I'll coog uzz somethinn while you bathe."

Shoya blushed even more as he signed a, "Thank you." He made is way into the bathroom and felt his knees buckle slightly. "Why is my heart beating so fast?" he thought as he leaned against the wall in the bathroom. He was not unused to Shoko being sweet, caring, and gorgeous, but right now felt different than usual. It was almost as if… they were a married couple. Shoya clenched his fists. "This is how every day's gonna end…" he thought. He felt a few tears of joy roll down his cheek. "How did I get so lucky?..."

Shoya soon calmed himself down and finished bathing. "I'll never understand how I got so lucky, but I can at least accept it and be grateful." he thought aloud, rationalizing his luck as he dried off. He stepped out, now in his pajamas. Unbeknownst to Shoya, Shoko was having the same rush of nerve and excitement. "It's like I'm cooking for my husband…" she thought as she saw him leave the bathroom out of the corner of her eye.

A day flashed before Shoko's eyes. She was looking down at a customer, cutting their hair and combing it. In the mirror that was in front of both her and the customer, she looked and saw the back of Shoya, who was doing the same for another customer. The day breezed by, and the two were in the kitchen. Shoya had his arms wrapped around Shoko, holding her close as she cooked for the both of them. "Mommy!" the voice of a young child called out to her. "This… is perfect…" Shoko thought as she shut her eyes.

When she opened them up again, she was still in the kitchen, working at the stove. "Are you okay? You seemed to have spaced out…" Shoya said, talking into her left ear, making extra sure she would be able to understand despite not facing him. To Shoko's surprise, just as she had previously imagined, Shoya had his arms draped around her, holding her close. Shoko thanked the fact that she was cooking, and facing away from Shoya, because she too let a few small tears of joy roll down her cheeks.

Not too long after eating dinner, the two of them laid down on the futon. Individually, the futon would not be preferable to a bed, since it was only barely better than sleeping on the floor, but in each others' arms, like they were, they felt more comfortable than in any bed.